industry, defense contractors, private companies that do work for the pentagon. one democratic congressman in northern virginia whose district maybe hit the hardest by all of this says it could mean layoffs. >> the large defense contractors will probably be okay, they have significant cash reserves, most of them. the smaller contractors would have trouble getting their lines of credit extended, trouble keeping their employees, if they can't be assured of continued employment. >> reporter: congressman moran says if we go over the cliff, which he thinks we will, then the impact and severity of the automatic defense spending cuts depend how long they are in place into the new year before congress finally fixes this fiscal cliff problem. gregg: molly henneberg. these cuts were never expected to be enacted, were they? >> reporter: right, during the budget battle of 2011, remember that super committee they were trying to find sending cuts during that time. these spending cuts were put in as an unthinkable trigger to force lawmakers to find a which too cut spending. >>